Nothing says 'I love you' like...

[cosmolinguist]

The eth (ð) is one of the letters for the /th/ sound (the thorn (þ) being the other one) that the Romans adopted from the runic alphabet when they began writing down Old English, because of course they used the Laitn alphabet, as we still do, and it has no letter for that sound, since Latin has no such sound (which is probably why speakers of Romance languages often have trouble with it). English has two such sounds, actually. Kind of. That's why there are two letters, ð was for the sound at the beginning of 'thy' and þ was for the sound at the beginning of 'thigh.' Though by the time the language was written down at all, the distinction had been lost and they were used interchangably. These now-unusual characters were almost totally gone by the time of Middle English. But thorns and eths can still be seen in modern Icelandic; the runes seem to have hung on in Norse culture. mllesarah and I learned about all of this in our grammar & language class last year.

Sarah went to London for spring break, and went through Iceland to get there and back. Whens he saw a sign with an eth on it, she took a picture of it for me. I saw lots of her pictures from England a couple of days ago, and indeed there was one with an eth. She gave me a copy.

Someone thinks of me when she sees a runic letter!

Comments

Thought you'd enjoy....

[ottercat.livejournal.com]

Meanehwæl, baccat meaddehæle, monstaer lurccen;
Fulle few too many drincce, hie luccen for fyht.
Ðen Hreorfneorhtðhwr, son of Hrwærowþheororthwl,
Æsccen æwful jeork to steop outsyd.
Þud! Bashe! Crasch! Beoom! Ðe bigge gye
Eallum his bon brak, byt his nose offe;
Wicced Godsylla wæld on his asse.
Monstær moppe fleor wyþ eallum men in hælle.
Beowulf in bacceroome fonecall bemaccen wæs;
Hearen sond of ruccus sæd, "Hwæt þe helle?"
Graben sheold strang ond swich-blæd scharp
Sond feorth to fyht ðe grimlic foe.
"Me," Godsylla saed, "mac ðe minsemete."
Heoro cwyc geten heold wiþ fæmed half-nelson
Ond flyng him lic frisbe bac to fen.
Beowulf belly up to meaddehæle bar,
Saed, "Ne foe beaten mie faersom cung-fu."
Eorderen cocca-colha yce-coeld, ðe reol þyng.

-- Not Chaucer, for certain

Re: Thought you'd enjoy....

[kalieris.livejournal.com]

"mie faersom cung-fu."

heheheheheheh...

H.

[cosmolinguist]

I do feel like less of a geek now, actually. :-) Though still enough of one to notice an impressive amount of actual Old-English-related stuff in there. I do enjoy it, indeed.

lol!

[ottercat.livejournal.com]

Looking back over it, I noticed a few typo's -- like an h after a thorn..... grumble.

I don't know a whole lot about old english, but I noticed some as well. Still, I think it's hillarious, and it's fun seeing the befuddled look on people's faces until you start reading it aloud ;-)

[opticnerves.livejournal.com]

Oooh... that was fascinating to wake up to. Thank you!

[cosmolinguist]

YOu called me fascinating? I should be thanking you!

[kwakhed.livejournal.com]

i þink i'll start writing my name as "þad"

:-D

[cosmolinguist]

Þat is an excellent idea.